(Baonghean.vn)- On a cold winter day, go to the communes along the Lam River in Hung Nguyen, experience life with the people of the 'rươi village', to understand more about 'a rươi region' of Nghe An with its hardships, difficulties, lantern nights and attractive dishes.
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Before the night the whole village goes to catch worms (also known as "worm festival"), in the worms fields in Hung Nhan commune, green nets have been spread all over each field. Those who come to the "worm village" for the first time, walking among the nets spread out far and wide, cannot help but be surprised and want to experience the feeling of catching "heaven's blessing". |
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| In the fields, only in the coastal areas, the rice fields near the ebb and flow of water have the earthworms. The households with fields in this area build the fields higher than the water level, drain the water to flow to another field to spread nets to catch the earthworms. |
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| Coming to Hung Loi “rươi village”, the evening scene is unusually quiet because people go to bed early to wake up at midnight. The most suitable time to go to the fields is when the tide is at its peak. From midnight, the fields begin to bustle, sparkling with lights. |
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| Everyone brought their tools to the fields to catch the worms. Some spread nets, others set traps… laughing and talking excitedly. In deep, strong-flowing areas, the worm catchers had to wade down to set up their nets in the middle of the rapid current. |
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| When the tide begins to go down, it is also the time when the worms swim freely in the fields. People carry lanterns to catch the worms, making the whole field noisy. In the past, under the flickering light of torches and oil lamps, the work of catching worms was extremely difficult, many people had their "faces burned and their hair burned by the worms". Nowadays, fishing tools have been improved, but the work of catching worms still requires rolling around in the middle of the night, staying awake in the pouring rain and cold wind. |
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| Catching earthworms in the fields is unpredictable. Some nights you can catch dozens of kilos, but other nights you can only catch a few ounces, and you have to go around and catch each earthworm, which is extremely hard work. |
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| The yellow, plump worms are the outstanding features of Hung Nguyen worms, different from the green worms in the Northern Delta. People here say that whether rice is grown in the fields or not, the worms are still plowed and fertilized adequately to make the fields deep and loose, so there will be more worms. |
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| For the people of Hung Loi “rươi village”, harvesting rươi is more important than growing rice. “Growing rice is just for fun, in the winter-spring crop we have enough rice to eat, but in the summer-autumn crop we don’t have enough money to rent threshing machines and harvesters. All year round, people here only look forward to a few days of rươi harvest” - a villager said. |
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| After each sleepless night with the worms and with so much anticipation, people can sell the worms they earn right in the field to traders (350,000 - 500,000 VND/kg) or bring them home to the market to prepare food. Each season of the worms, large households earn hundreds of millions, small households earn tens of millions. The worms fields of the Hung Nguyen people bring billions of VND to the people every year, hundreds of times more than growing rice and growing other crops. |
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| Rươi is a protein-rich food that can be processed into many delicious dishes such as: boiled, braised, stir-fried, rolled in betel leaves, cooked in bamboo shoot soup... Among the fresh rươi dishes, rươi cake is an attractive dish. Coming to the "rươi village" on a cold day, enjoying the fatty, sweet and fragrant rươi cake, sipping a glass of country rice wine is too "great" for visitors from far away. |
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| Having been attached to the earthworm for generations, the people of the “earthworm village” have also gained a lot of experience in processing earthworms into various dishes, of which earthworm sauce is a specialty of Hung Nguyen. From the skillful hands of mothers and sisters, the mixture of earthworms, salt, rice bran, tangerine peel, shallots... after a period of drying and fermenting has become a famous delicious earthworm sauce. Every earthworm season, every family sets aside about 10 kg of earthworms to make fish sauce to eat, to give away, and the surplus is sold for up to 500,000 VND/bottle (650ml bottle). |
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| During the season of rươi, the fields at night are as joyful as a festival, the markets are also bustling with buyers and sellers of rươi. It seems that nature has bestowed upon the people of the flood-prone area of Hung Nguyen this “heavenly gift”, to bring joy, to make a living, to compensate for the hardships and misfortunes. Rươi has become a part of the lives of the people here, they miss it when they leave, and they love it when they stay. |
Huy Thu
.jpg "Nông dân Nghệ An giăng lưới, đắp bờ săn 'lộc trời'")
